


Writing my heart for you on a sticky note

by feminabeata



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Boyfriends, Established Relationship, Love Notes, M/M, and fluff, and just love, and poor handwriting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 14:26:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7109044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feminabeata/pseuds/feminabeata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sunggyu tried to write uplifting notes to pull his boyfriend out of a slump. Unfortunately, Sungyeol couldn't read his boyfriend's handwriting for sh*t.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Writing my heart for you on a sticky note

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday, Momo! It's still June 5th here, even though you're sleeping until June 6th. Thank you for forcing me to give Gyuyeol a try. I love these kids. I lob you.
> 
> ****I couldn't think of a good title. So I adapted a line from "Love Letter."  
> ****Also sticky note=post-it note. Is there an international term for that?

Sungyeol experienced slumps from time to time; however, recently he had slipped into a deeper slump than usual and was having a hard time climbing out of it. He was passed over for a promotion for someone younger than he was. Then, he’d gotten into a car accident. He was fine, thankfully, but his beloved car had been totaled, making Sungyeol feel like he’d lost his first love all over again. And to top it all off, Sungyeol went to a fortune teller, wanting to know if his luck would change soon, and she said that it would, once the year had passed. So Sungyeol was doomed to an entire year of this misery.

But what made this slump far different from the ones before was that this was Sungyeol’s first slump since he started dating Sunggyu. With the earlier slumps, Sunggyu would just lend his support, gave some advice, and bought him drinks. Now, as his boyfriend, Sunggyu wagered that he should do just more than buy Sungyeol a drink. He needed to actively pull Sungyeol out of the ditch that he was wallowing in. Because, well, he loved the kid, quite a lot actually. And it pained him to see Sungyeol so lifeless and lightless; his natural spark had fizzled and died out. And Sunggyu was determined to light that fire again.

“Sungyeol-ah,” Sunggyu called to his boyfriend. Sungyeol was sitting listlessly on the couch, and Sunggyu walked up behind him and the couch, hanging his head over him and looking at the other upside down. “Do you want to go on a trip? Let’s go to Jeju.”

Sungyeol looked up at the other with pitch black eyes, dead as the night. He shook his head, before letting it fall again, with his chin digging into his chest. Sunggyu pulled himself back up straight and frowned.

“No traveling this year, hyung. The plane might crash,” Sungyeol answered, finally after an agonizing silence, for Sunggyu, but he tried to not let it show. Sunggyu plastered a smile across his face, obviously fake and wide like a clown’s painted smile. The elder then sat next to Sungyeol on the couch and patted to other on the knee.

“Then let’s sail to Jeju,” Sunggyu suggested, gripping the knee warmly. “I’m sure there’s a cruise.”

“The ship will sink,” Sungyeol said without even taking a second to consider it.

Sunggyu couldn’t keep the smile anymore on his face. It became a pained grimace, and his grip tightened on Sungyeol’s knee. “How about we drive to the beach?” he tried again.

“With what car? I crashed mine, and you don’t like driving,” Sungyeol pointed out and swiped at Sunggyu’s hand on his knee. “It hurts,” he muttered under his breath and began rubbing his knee.

It was true. Sunggyu didn’t like driving one bit. It was troublesome. And if he were to drive, he preferred driving in prime conditions. His car was more like proof that he had become successful, even though it was a standard model. However, he’d drive for his family, and: “I’ll drive _you_.”

At that, Sungyeol turned towards Sunggyu. His mouth was slightly opened as he thought it over. For once, he didn’t immediately reject Sunggyu’s idea. But he still rejected it all the same. Sungyeol closed his eyes tightly and shook his head furiously. “No, no. Better not.”

And somehow, that rejection aggravated Sunggyu the most because he thought that he finally broke the other’s stubbornness. But the wild horse just bucked him off again. “Are you just going to stay on this couch all year?” the elder raised his voice as he stood up from the couch.

“Yep,” Sungyeol drawled out, not moving an inch.

Sunggyu sighed and shook his own head. “Then I’ll just leave then, if you won’t do anything with me,” he threatened, taking a side step towards the door, eyes fixed on the younger as he did so, looking for a reaction.

Sungyeol did. His head snapped over towards Sunggyu. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. This time he was forcing himself to smile. It was kind of creepy, that tight smile with his dim eyes. “We can eat,” he offered. “Hyung, let’s order in.”

Sunggyu wavered for a few seconds before answering and getting back on the couch with his boyfriend, “Okay I’ll leave after we eat.”

* * *

Sunggyu and Sungyeol hadn’t been dating that long, and before then they were friends but not best friends. There were still things about Sunggyeol that Sunggyu had to learn, like it was too soon to pull Sungyeol from his slump. Sungyeol had to wallow in this hole a little bit longer and find his footing once again before he could climb out. And suggesting to runaway from his problems with a vacation wasn’t the best way to deal with the situation either.

Also, just because Sungyeol was rejecting Sunggyu’s suggestions didn’t mean that he didn’t want to hang out with the other. He still wanted Sunggyu by his side, neither actively comforting him nor giving him advice. Sungyeol just wanted Sunggyu to _be_ there. Sunggyu’s presence alone was comforting to him.

So Sunggyu stayed a little longer and watched a movie after dinner. He let Sungyeol feel his entire presence by laying on top of the other on the couch. It wasn’t exactly cuddling because Sungyeol still wasn’t moving much, save for the hand he laid on the small of Sunggyu’s back, but it was still nice.

But Sunggyu still felt like should do more than just crush his boyfriend under his weight. So he decided to leave a bit of his presence behind, just with a small note. And while Sungyeol was in the bathroom, Sunggyu went into his bedroom and grabbed at the pad of sticky notes laying on top of Sungyeol’s desk and a pen. He then stepped back in order to sit on the bed, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head, thinking, and thinking, and thinking. And he still had no idea what to write to the other. However, he panicked when he heard the toilet flush and wrote the first thing that came to his mind, a mix of English and Romanized Korean, a complete mess. But Sunggyu didn’t have time to write anything better. He couldn’t think of anything better. So he tacked the sloppily written note on the nightstand and scurried back to the couch, waiting “casually” for his boyfriend to return.

Because he was still flustered by the whole situation, Sunggyu soon left, giving the other a quick kiss before heading out the door.

Sunggyu giggled mischievously to himself after the door was shut behind him. _I wonder how he’d react once he found it. I bet he’d be shocked. Those big eyes would pop right out of his head._

* * *

Sungyeol plopped down onto his bed, exhausted from all of his miseries. Sunggyu being there helped. Without him, Sungyeol would’ve gone to bed hours ago (for lack of anything better to do), if it weren’t for the elder. His lips pulled tightly across his face. It was the closest thing to a genuine smile that he had all day.

Sungyeol rolled onto his side to turn out the light, but he quickly propped himself up on his elbow. There was a note on his lamp. How did he not notice it before? When did Sunggyu leave it? Was this even his handwriting? Sungyeol had never seen the elder write anything by hand save for his signature at the end of receipts. Whosever handwriting it was, it was complete shit.

“Huh?” Sungyeol grumbled. He squinted his eyes, turned the note on its side, then turned it upside down, and turned his own head upside down. But either which way, the note still didn’t make much sense.

“I love eggs?”

There were times when they ran errands for each other, whenever work kept them from living like a normal human being. But when Sunggyu normally asked Sungyeol to pick up something from the market, it was via SNS and was normally followed by an excessive use of emojis (because he felt guilty for asking). Maybe this was Sunggyu “cutely” asking Sungyeol to pick him up some eggs. And he wrote in English because they had watched a James Bond movie that night? It didn’t make any sense, but Sunggyu was like that sometimes. It was the beginning of their relationship, and Sungyeol was learning new things about him everyday. For example, apparently Sunggyu loved eggs. And Sungyeol could deal with that. He’d pick up his boyfriend a crate of eggs at the market tomorrow before heading over to his apartment.

“I got the eggs that you wanted, hyung,” Sungyeol announced as soon as his boyfriend opened up the door to his apartment. He proudly showed off the grocery bag to the other. Yes, he might be having an awful time at work, but there was one job that he was good at: being Sunggyu’s boyfriend. His lips pulled a little tighter across his face, a little wider.  
Sunggyu laughed. “Eggs? Me?” he asked as he stepped aside to let the other in; however, Sungyeol stayed rooted in his place, out of confusion.

“Didn’t you ask me to pick you up eggs last night?” he muttered, thinking back to the note on the nightstand. Wasn’t that what it said?

“No,” Sunggyu dropped his laughter and answered seriously. He then grabbed the bag from the other. “But I’ll take these. Come on in,” he urged the younger, pulling in a frozen Sungyeol by the wrist. “Want an egg roll?” Sunggyu asked as he headed for the kitchen.

“I guess,” Sungyeol replied, his mind elsewhere. He shuffled to the couch and slowly sat himself down. “I swore it was hyung,” he mumbled cocking his head. “It must’ve been Myungsoo.”

* * *

Sunggyu stared at the frying pan that he placed on the gas range and then looked at the cracked eggs in a bowl to the side of the range. _How the Hell do you do this?_ Sunggyu’s offer to make an egg roll just slipped off of his tongue. He rarely cooked, but just like driving, he’d cook for Sungyeol. He’d always put in the effort for people he cared about.

The “cook” sighed as he looked at the instructions that he pulled from online on his phone again. It seemed simple enough to make. But Sunggyu didn’t have even the simplest cooking tools, like a whisk. “A fork should be fine,” Sunggyu muttered under his breath as he put the phone down. He ripped open the drawer and pulled out a fork. “It should be fine,” he repeated once again.

It wasn’t. It was a mess. There was egg all over the countertop and the range, and of course in the pan. But the eggs ended up being scrambled and burned because Sunggyu had the heat on too high and panicked while he tried to roll it. So he handed the eggs over to Sungyeol, doused in ketchup.

Sunggyu half expected the younger to push the eggs to the side and suggest that they buy a roll from the convenience store. Sungyeol was notoriously picky with his food, often opting not to eat at all if it didn’t suit his tastes. However, Sungyeol ate this scrambled mess wordlessly (except for the mumbled “thank you). Did Sunggyu’s cooking really match his taste? Did Sungyeol lose his sensitive taste buds? His mind? Or was he just being a good boyfriend?

In any case, the action warmed Sunggyu’s heart and shot a pang of guilt through it at the same time. And so when he wished Sungyeol a good night, he slipped another note in the pocket of Sungyeol’s coat. The food may not have been delicious that night, but Sunggyu wanted to promise only delicious food from now on…and to quit cooking all together.

“Call me for lunch <3”

* * *

“Call me…what?” Sungyeol grumbled under his breath. This note was definitely from Sunggyu. There was no doubt about it. The elder must’ve thought that he was being slick, but Sungyeol could feel Sunggyu digging through his pockets when they hugged.

Sungyeol gulped harshly as he stopped in the middle of the hallway, staring at the note intently. His relationship with Sunggyu was about to take an interesting turn.

* * *

“Myungsoo, what does this say?” Sungyeol asked his coworker after invading his cubicle. He handed Myungsoo the note. “I think Sunggyu wants to try out pet names.”

Myungsoo scrunched his face in confusion as he took the note from the other. “You don’t do that already?” he questioned. Myungsoo knew the both of them very well. He’d gone to college with Sungyeol, and Sunggyu was a sunbae from his high school. In fact, Myungsoo was the one who suggested to Sunggyu to move into Sungyeol’s apartment building because the rent and location was decent and the amenities were good. Then one day, Sungyeol met Sunggyu, struggling to get a package that was stuffed snuggly into his mailbox and decided to help the poor, sweaty man out, and the rest was history (or the beginning of a beautiful relationship).

Sungyeol’s face heated up. “We haven’t. It’s still a little too early,” he blubbered quickly. They were still at the beginning of the relationship, the period of time when you test each other’s boundaries. Sungyeol normally wasn’t this tentative in a relationship. By now, he would’ve been calling his partner all of the cheesiest pet names playfully. But with Sunggyu, it was different. He wanted to have a mature relationship with the other. He wanted to do it right. “I was afraid he’d hit me for being informal,” he admitted, trying to make a joke of out it.

“Obviously he wants you to call him…” Myungsoo paused as he looked down at the note. His eyebrows furrowed. “Torland? Thorland? Tornand? Oh, tornado! Tornado!” he announced excitedly, clapping his hands, acting as if he solved a difficult riddle (which this was).

“Sunggyu. Kim Sung Gyu,” Sungyeol pronounced the name emphatetically, just making sure Myungsoo knew who they were talking about. “He wants me to call him ‘Tornado?’” Myungsoo nodded happily in response. Sungyeol groaned. This couldn’t be right. “Why?”

“I don’t know. He’s _your_ boyfriend,” Myungsoo answered. “Is it an inside joke?”

Sungyeol’s eyes drifted up towards the ceiling as he thought back as far as he could. The two of them joked about many, many things, but ‘tornado’ wasn’t ringing any bells. “No, I don’t think so,” he concluded. “I don’t think we’re reading this right.”

“Let’s ask, Woohyun-hyung,” Myungsoo proposed, already getting up from his seat in order to pester the worker in the neighboring cubicle.

“No, no, no,” Sungyeol argued, trying to pull his friend back down into his seat. Telling Woohyun would be a horrible idea. Woohyun wasn’t exactly a secure vault; he was easier to crack than an egg. Although Woohyun and Sunggyu weren’t the best of friends, they really enjoyed gossiping with each other. “We shouldn’t. I don’t want—”

Myungsoo ignored him. It was part of his character to see things through to the end like this. He wanted to know what the note said as badly as Sungyeol did. “Hyung!” Myungsoo called out to Woohyun, reaching down to tap him on the head.  
“What’s up?” Woohyun asked, popping up as soon as Myungsoo’s fingers grazed his head. He hung himself over the edge of the cubicle wall.

“Sunggyu-hyung left this for Sungyeollie. What does this say?” Myungsoo explained the situation as he handed the note over to the other.

Woohyun squinted his eyes into a thin line as he read it. “Call me…Fernando,” he read the note slowly and gravely.

“Ah, that’s it!” Myungsoo cheered.

“Well, it’s an actual name this time,” Sungyeol admitted. He sighed and took the note away from Woohyun. _I guess I can do this_. “Alright, let’s try it.”

* * *

Sunggyu stomped up the stairs, heading for Sungyeol’s apartment two floors up. He was angry, no furious. Sunggyu had a short fuse already, and it was only cut shorter when he was hungry. And right now, he was starving. Sungyeol had never called him for lunch. Sunggyu kept waiting and waiting by the phone, but his boyfriend never called. And so Sunggyu never ate.

 _What was he doing? Who was he eating with? If he ate something good without me, I’m going to lose it!_ Sunggyu thought as he marched down the hallway. He was being petty, yes. But that’s the way Sunggyu was, and Sungyeol should know that by now. He should know better than to test Sunggyu like this.

When Sunggyu finally reached the other’s apartment, he banged on the door. It only took Sungyeol a few seconds to answer the door, but every second that passed felt like an age. Sunggyu could feel himself becoming a bitter, old man as he waited. But when Sungyeol opened the door, the anger faded, and Sunggyu felt more like a confused child.

“Oh! It’s Fernando!” Sungyeol announced with a playful shimmy. He still wasn’t exactly smiling, but his teeth peeked through his lips.

“What?” Sunggyu stammered in shock.

Sungyeol seemed just as surprised as Sunggyu felt. “Tornado?” Sungyeol sputtered. “Tomato?”

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes on the other. His boyfriend had lost his mind. His eyes scanned all over Sungyeol. The younger was confused, yes, but underneath those furrowed brows, there were dark circles reaching down past his cheeks. Sungyeol’s hand was fixed on top of his stomach. Sunggyu smirked. “Did you skip lunch today? You’re speaking nonsense,” he asked.

“I did,” Sungyeol confessed weakly, leaning against the doorframe. “We were behind, so I had to work through lunch.”

“Let’s go out then and eat lots,” Sunggyu suggested. “Come on. Get on your shoes.” Sungyeol hesitated for a second, and Sunggyu lost his patience once again. He yelled, covering up his grumbling stomach, “Let’s go!”

“Okay okay,” Sungyeol tried to assuage the other, quickly slipping on his shoes. “I’m coming, Tornado. I’m coming.”

Sunggyu smiled. He finally succeeded in getting the other out of the apartment for something other than work ever since the slump started. “Faster faster faster!” he shouted with a smile on his face. Maybe this was the reason behind Sungyeol’s new name for him. The words whipped out of Sunggyu’s mouth, circling around the other like a cyclone. Sunggyu smiled wider at that thought and decided to return the favor, “Move faster, Glacier!”

* * *

Maybe Glacier was too apt of a name for Sungyeol or maybe Sunggyu underestimated the younger’s horrible luck. It wasn’t that Sungyeol was slow or cold, but he was melting. He was melting all over the toilet of his apartment. They must’ve been to that restaurant hundreds of times before, but this was the first time either of them had ever gotten food poisoning. The meat was undercooked, and Sungyeol’s sensitive stomach was having a horrible reaction to it.

And while Sungyeol was puking out his guts in the bathroom, Sunggyu took the sticky pad again and wrote several notes, sticking them to the fridge.

“I like your smile. Please smile more.”

“You’re not unlucky because you have me as a boyfriend.”

“Have a good day!”

He tacked those and several more on the fridge until it formed a smiley face. Sunggyu stepped backwards and marveled at his own brilliant, masterpiece (of sloppily written post-its). He then opened up the fridge, getting water for his probably dehydrated Glacier.

_When will things turn around for him?_

* * *

“Okay, so I think I know what we’re missing,” Sungyeol told his coworkers as he led them into the kitchen of his apartment. “Context! Last time, we didn’t take into account the context of the note,” he explained. The three of them then stood in a line in front of the fridge, frowning at the smiley face on it. “So what do you think?”

“Well, he’s happy?” Myungsoo guessed as he cautiously took a step forward, entering into the situation with the cautious precision of an archaeologist.

“Or he wants _you_ to be happy?” Woohyun put another interpretation out there. Woohyun side-eyed his coworker. “Either way, that’s good, right?”

“Well, keep that in mind as you try to read this,” Sungyeol challenged peeling off one of the eyes of the smiley face and handing the note over to Woohyun.

“You look like a potato,” Woohyun read through narrowed his eyes. He then opened them up wider to look at a despondent Sungyeol. Woohyun patted him on the back. “Potatoes are cute.”

“Eung,” Myungsoo chimed in. “They’re nice and round.”

“But I’m nice and long!” Sungyeol argued. “I’m tall!” He then looked and down his body and patted his stomach gingerly. “Am I lumpy?”

Myungsoo cocked his head, and his brows knitted in thought. “I don’t think so,” he concluded.

That was good enough for Sungyeol. “Anyways,” he was determined to get them back on track. “Let’s move onto another one. This one is no good,” he said as he stuck the note onto the countertop.

Woohyun was already ahead of him. He took a note from the corner of the smiley face’s lip. “Okay so I know that this has to say ‘have a good day.’ But it looks like ‘have food yay,’” he deduced. He then looked up from the note to his coworker. “Or have you not been eating well?”  
“I haven’t,” Sungyeol confessed as he took the note and read for himself _. Does hyung want me to eat until I become round like a potato?_

“So…either or,” Woohyun concluded as he put the note back up, exactly how he found it. “Moving on!”

And move on they did. They fruitlessly tried to decipher every last note, but they only grew more and more confused as they went along. At one point in time, Woohyun asked if Sunggyu had spent anytime abroad because his writing was so poor. As far as Myungsoo and Sungyeol knew, Sunggyu had never left the country.

In the end, the three of them drew up a grocery list and a second list full of things that Sungyeol should do for Sunggyu, just so that he could cover all of his bases. He swore one of them just said “headache,” so he bought pain killers and gave Sunggyu a head massage. The elder seemed a bit confused at first when Sungyeol started to rub his temples when they were watching television, but he didn’t exactly complain about it either.

But it was as Sungyeol was giving him the bag of random items that he bought from the store for the other (yogurt, a toothbrush, powder for athlete’s foot, bird seed, and a single potato), when it became obvious that Sungyeol had gotten everything entirely wrong, again. “I forgot to give this to you when I came in. Here,” he said, offering the black bag to the other.

Sunggyu didn’t even move his hands to grab the bag. He raised an eyebrow at the other as he looked him up and down. “What did you do?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“What did you do?” Sunggyu repeated. “Why do you keep giving me things? You must’ve done something wrong.”

“I didn’t,” Sungyeol insisted waving his hands. “I didn’t do anything wrong at all. If it makes you feel bad to accept this, then I’ll keep it.” Sungyeol would rather die right now than admit what he did wrong: misreading all of Sunggyu’s notes. He didn’t want the elder to think that they misunderstood each other, that they weren’t meshing. The notes would stop eventually, right?

Sunggyu smirked again. “Well, if you bought this with me in mind, it’s rude of me not to accept,” he said stepping closer to Sungyeol. “Gimme, gimme, gimme.” He reached for the bag in Sungyeol’s hands. Sungyeol allowed the other to rip it from his hands. Sunggyu’s smile fell once he searched through the contents of the bag. “What is this?”

 _I guess none of this was what he wanted_. Sungyeol groaned. “I don’t know,” he confessed.

Sunggyu raised his head, concern etched all over his face. “I’m going home,” he announced.

“Why? Why? Why?” Sungyeol blubbered as he followed the other towards the door.

“You’re tired. You’re not making any sense or making good decisions,” Sunggyu explained as he put on his shoes, and he mumbled something like “I don’t even like banana flavored yogurt.” Once he put on his shoes, he pulled himself back up straight. “But thank you for this. I did need a new toothbrush.” Sunggyu then reached up to pat the other on top of the head. “Sleep well, Sungyeollie.” And he was gone.

Sungyeol stared at the closed door for a few moments. “Things are okay, right?” he asked himself. He then groaned as he ran his fingers through his hair, pulling at the roots. “Aish, I don’t know! I’m going to bed!” he announced to the empty room.

* * *

However on the other side of the door, Sunggyu was still listening. This slump had stared to really take a toll on Sungyeol. Sunggyu had underestimated how deep the other had fallen. _I need a longer rope_.

Sunggyu placed the bag on the floor and cracked his neck. It was time to get to work.

Sure, Sungyeol was in a slump, but no matter how dark it was in that hole he’d fallen in, it was just plain rude to ignore all of the nice notes Sunggyu had left behind for Sungyeol. His boyfriend hadn’t said a word about any single one of them, but Sunggyu noticed how the fridge was now clear of his smiley face and the first note was no longer on the lampshade. Sungyeol had seen them, Sungyeol had read them, and Sungyeol never responded to them, not even with a simple “Thank you, hyung. You’re the best boyfriend ever.” And so, Sunggyu was going to make it so that Sungyeol wouldn’t be able to ignore him anymore (and so you know, he’d feel better too). Sunggyu was prepared to cover Sungyeol’s entire front door with his little notes.

It took a long time to accomplish. Sunggyu normally had a hard time coming up with what to write for a few notes, so this seemed impossible. But then Sunggyu concluded that he was aiming for quantity over quality. As a result, some of the things he wrote weren’t exactly nice, but then he tried to make up for it with some extra-cheesy notes that would even make drama writers cringe.

Of course, passing neighbors thought it was strange to see Sunggyu crouched down on the floor as he wrote furiously on his sticky pad. But as soon as he said, “Sungyeollie is having a rough day,” they all seemed to understand. No one liked a depressed Sungyeol, and Sunggyu hated it.

“This should bring his smile back,” Sunggyu said as he tacked the last note onto the door. “If this doesn’t do it, I don’t know what will.”

* * *

“Alright, men, here we are again,” Sungyeol told Woohyun and Myungsoo next to him. Sungyeol put his hands on his hips and closed his eyes tightly. _I really thought I’d be done with this._

“Woah!” Myungsoo gasped. “How?”

“Well,” Woohyun began as he stepped closer to the door. “It’s Kim Sunggyu. We already know that he has a lot to say.”

“You can say that again,” Sungyeol muttered as he picked a note off the door.

“It’s Kim Sunggyu. We already—”

“Shut up and read,” Sungyeol snapped, and Woohyun laughed to himself in response. He should’ve known better than to test Sungyeol’s patience right now. Sungyeol was serious. He was determined. He was going to understand what Sunggyu wrote 100% this time.

“Oh, I found one,” Myungsoo exclaimed. He quickly came to Sungyeol’s side and gave it to his friend. “This one _definitely_ says ‘you have stinky feet,’” Myungsoo said with a broad grin on his face. When he realized what he had actually said, his face fell. “I’m sorry.”

“Great. The most legible one makes fun of my body odor,” Sungyeol grumbled under his breath, crumpling the note in his fist. “Hyung, you’re not much better!” Sungyeol yelled down at the ground so that Sunggyu, two floors down, could hear him.

“This one is kinda cute, and also legible,” Woohyun told Sungyeol and handed a note over. It was a drawing of two stick figures holding hands, one with his feet and the bottom and his head reaching the top, and the other who was smaller by much. But just in case Sungyeol couldn’t figure out which figure was which from the sizes, Sunggyu had added captions: “me” and “you.”

Sungyeol narrowed his eyes. There were two lines sticking out from the curly tuft of hair on his figure’s head. “What’s on my head?” Sungyeol asked, handing the note back to Woohyun.

Woohyun snorted as he took it back. “A better question is: why does Sunggyu think that he has that much muscle?” he challenged, showing the drawing again to Sungyeol. And sure enough, Sunggyu had drawn himself with bulging biceps and pecs.

Sungyeol took it back and sniggered. “He’s a strange one.” His lip turned up into a half smile.

“Sungyeol…” Myungsoo called out to his friend. His face as pale as he looked at the two notes that he was currently holding in each hand.

“What is it, Soo?” Sungyeol asked as he walked over his friend. He gazed over the other’s shoulder and read the notes. “EH?!” he exclaimed and tore the notes from Myungsoo’s hands.

“You are my reason for leaving.”

“Let’s break up…”

Sungyeol read them over and over again. The three of them had been reading Sunggyu’s handwriting so often that it was clear as day. That was really and truthfully what Sunggyu had written down.

“It’s not over yet,” Sungyeol grumbled as he held the notes tightly in his fists. He then marched down the hall and away from the door.

“Yah! Where are you going?” Woohyun shouted down the hall to him.

“To Sunggyu!” Sungyeol shouted back angrily.

Woohyun then turned to Myungsoo. “Why didn’t he just do that in the first place?” he asked.

Myungsoo shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know, but do you want to get breakfast?”

“Call!”

* * *

10 am on a Saturday morning. Sunggyu wasn’t in his apartment at 10 am on a Saturday morning. Sunggyu was always in bed at this time before. If he wasn’t there, where was he? Out? Out with whom? Doing what?

 _Is this really the end?_ Sungyeol thought as he slumped onto the floor. _Where did I go wrong?_

And that was the thing: Sungyeol couldn’t find a single time when he did wrong. He was a great boyfriend. He still loved Sunggyu even though his handwriting sucked, and in spite of all of his other flaws. And sure, he hadn’t called Sunggyu by a pet name yet, but that didn’t mean Sungyeol never expressed his affection for the other. Hell, he massaged Sunggyu’s head for a half an hour the other night because the elder enjoyed it so much. And more than affection, he also respected Sunggyu, greatly, and Sunggyu respected him just as much. That often didn’t exist in his previous relationships. Indeed, there was nothing that Sunggyeol could think of where he went wrong. In fact, Sungyeol was more confused than hurt and upset. His foot was tapping against the floor in agitation as he thought.

 _Is it my feet?_ His feet stilled as he looked down at them. He’d seen concerns like this on Hello Counselor: the boyfriend with a sensitive nose and the partner with a smelly odor. Sungyeol bite his lip as he crossed his feet over each other. _Maybe that’s why Sunggyu doesn’t like it when I put my feet on his lap_ , Sungyeol thought. But then Sungyeol cocked his head. Sunggyu would complain about Sungyeol’s feet, but then the elder would gradually lay on top of him. Sunggyu didn’t mind to be close to Sungyeol and his smell. The elder seemed to prefer it. _Maybe he was trying to get away from my smelly feet_.

“No, no, no,” Sungyeol denied, shaking his head. What if it wasn’t what Sungyeol did wrong to Sunggyu? What if it was something that he was doing wrong in general? And lately, everything Sungyeol did went wrong. His slump, his bad luck. Sungyeol’s eyes widened at that thought. _What if it’s my slump and I’m dragging him down with me?_

“Sungyeol, why are you here?”

Sungyeol immediately was pulled out of his thoughts and scrambled onto his feet. “Where were you?” he returned the other’s question with one of his own.

Sunggyu lifted up the bag he was holding. “To buy a bird feeder for the bird seed you got me,” he answered.

“At 10 am?” Sungyeol asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Eung,” Sunggyu grunted. “Why are you here?” he asked again, his voice gruffer this time.

“To win you back,” Sungyeol announced.

“Huh? What?” Sunggyu’s voice still sounded rough.

“Hyung. I knew that I was having a bad year, but never, never once did I think you’d leave me,” Sungyeol said. Something wet dripped down his cheek. This wasn’t good. He was crying now. “I don’t know what I did wrong, but I’ll fix it.”

“Sungyeol, there’s nothing to fix,” Sunggyu responded, putting the bag on the floor.

“Why?” Sungyeol raised his voice. His emotions were bubbling up inside him and overflowing. He was a mess of shock, confusion, and disbelief. “Were we really that bad? Was I _that_ bad? Why do you hate me now?”

But then, arms circled around his body. Sunggyu was hugging, tightly. “There’s nothing to fix because we’re not breaking up,” the elder’s voice was muffled because his cheek was pressed against the other’s chest. He then pulled away. “Why did you think we were?” he asked with a slight laugh. _Good, this seems ridiculous to him too, but…the note._

“This,” Sungyeol mumbled as he opened up his fist. He had been clenching his hand so tightly that his hand was purple. He offered the note to the other. “It says that I’m the reason for you leaving.”

“Huh?” Sunggyu gasped as he quickly took the note and read it over. “Sungyeol,” he raised his head and called out to the other. “It says that you’re my reason for….breathing,” he stammered. Sunggyu’s ears turned bright red and the blush began to spread to his cheeks. He lowered his head and cursed, “Aish, that’s so awkward to say out loud.”

“Huh?” Sungyeol muttered as he took the note back from the other. “Where? Where does it say that?” Sungyeol tilted his head and saw the letters form properly in his mind. _Huh, it really does say ‘breathing.’_

Sunggyu crossed his arms over his chest and smirked. “So you actually got my notes?” he asked.

“Every single one, my dear Fernando,” Sungyeol answered.

“What’s with ‘Fernando’?” Sunggyu sputtered into a laugh. Sungyeol immediately dug into his coat pockets. He still had the note somewhere in there. Once he found it, he gave it to the elder. Sunggyu then quickly read it, his lips moving as he did so. After he was finished, he yelled and hit the other in the chest, “Yah, it says ‘call me for lunch’! I wanted to buy you lunch the other day, but you never called.”

“Really?” Sungyeol took the note back. Now this one was impossible. It definitely said…”for lunch.” _Woohyun and Myungsoo can’t read_. Sungyeol groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose to stop the oncoming headache he had.

“Yea,” Sunggyu replied. “What did you think the others said?”

“Well…”

* * *

The two of them, hand in hand, returned back to Sungyeol’s apartment. And Sunggyu read all of the notes to Sungyeol, no matter how embarrassing they were to say aloud. And some were incredibly embarrassing.

“This note goes with this one,” Sunggyu revealed, taking another note off of the door. “Let’s break up, dot dot dot, when the world ends.”

“Dot dot dot?” Sungyeol repeated, taking the note from the other. “I didn’t see ellipses anywhere. Hyung! That’s too faint.”

Sunggyu grumbled under his breath as he took a pen from his pocket and drew three circles around his “dots.” “Better?” he asked, giving it back to Sungyeol.

“Much,” Sungyeol chirped back, taking the note and putting it in his chest pocket, close to his heart.

“Oh! Smile!” Sunggyu exclaimed, poking at his boyfriend’s cheek. “I hadn’t seen that in a while.”

Sungyeol felt his own cheeks and felt them pick up higher. He was smiling, broadly like he used to before he fell into the slump. His gums were even exposed. It felt weird to be smiling like that again. It was weird but great, really great. Sungyeol felt happy again. And Sunggyu was smiling just as big right back at him.

Sungyeol then cleared his throat. What _was_ weird was the two of them just standing in the hallway smiling at each other. “This one,” Sungyeol said, changing the subject and pointing at the stick figure drawing. “What’s on my head?”

“You’re a giraffe,” Sunggyu spoke in a proud voice. “I think I did a great job and…YAH! Why are you ripping it up?”

“Fail!” Sungyeol exclaimed in a cheeky voice. Along with his smile, he regained his playfulness again. “Another! Another!” he urged his boyfriend to continue reading the notes, which Sunggyu did.

Not all of them were nice. Sungyeol tore up the mean ones (like the one about his feet) and kept the ones that he liked in the chest pocket. And with that layer of love notes, Sungyeol’s heart felt warm again. He had crawled out of the slump and saw the light of day again. He felt the rays of his sun, Sunggyu. And he wanted to feel like this for the rest of time (fortune teller be damned).

* * *

“The first one. What did the first one say?”

The two of them were now on the couch of Sungyeol’s living room, making plans to go on a trip together. Sungyeol could really use a change of scenery. He felt cabin fever from being cooped up in his room for too long.

“Aish, I don’t want to say it. Don’t make me say it?” Sunggyu whined. “I said enough cheesy things today. I met my quota for my whole life.”

“Just one more, hyung. One more,” Sungyeol begged. “I’m really curious because I swear it says ‘I love eggs.’”

“Eggs? Eggs?!” Sunggyu turned towards the other and laughed. “It didn’t say that! I said ‘I…lob….aegie.” he slurred the last bit and his face grew hot once again. “There’s a lot wrong with that, isn’t there? No wonder why you couldn’t figure it out. Maybe I should pick up English lessons and learn how to write notes properly. Or maybe you should pick up cryptology and learn how decode this mess,” Sunggyu ranted, trying to lure the other into a playful banter and away from his embarrassing confession

But Sungyeol wasn’t tricked. He was stunned. He was euphoric. These were two things that they’ve never said to each other: the pet names and “I love you.” Sungyeol had a feeling that Sunggyu loved him. And at times he _really_ felt like Sunggyu loved him. But neither of them actually said it. The both of them were so tentative, too afraid to mess anything up. But this didn’t ruin anything. This made everything all that much better. Sungyeol smiled wider than he had in weeks, even wider than before in the hallway, and said before kissing his boyfriend, “I lob ma aegie too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I wrote some of these "notes" over and over again in my notebook as sloppily as I could, so that's how I came up with most of these. I tried!


End file.
